First Impressions in the Digital Age

In the digital age, everyone has some sort of internet presence whether they have a public Instagram account or not. What you search and sign up for follows you around. People can find out information about you without even meeting you. Before the internet, the most people could find out was maybe your phone number or address. Now, someone can know what sports you played in high school or infer your political views by what posts you like. I actually learned more than I wanted to about my roommate in the summer. Just by searching up his name, I learned of all his accomplishments in high school. It was a little intimidating to discover someone pursuing the same major was also president and valedictorian of his high school.

The power is in your hands (kind of).

           

            Don’t panic! Unless you are a celebrity—or my roommate—people most likely are not reporting or researching your every move. You can decide which social media apps you use. You can also decide whether to make your account public or not which can protect you from strangers (kind of). It’s easy to surrender to the idea that “privacy is dead,” but in reality it isn’t COMPLETELY dead. You still have time to protect yourself!

How much is TOO much?

            Obviously, everyone should live their best life and not care what anyone thinks, but how many people are that brave in the twenty first century? Not too many. Most social media leave it up to you to decide how much you want to share. Specifically, you can use Twitter to retweet movements you support or videos you find funny. However, you also hold the power to show the world what’s on your mind at any second. Are you the kind of person alright with someone seeing an old tweet that you were “on the toilet lol.” Your close friends might think it’s funny in the moment, but your prospective boss might not. A good rule of thumb is to just put yourself in the shoes of the different kind of people you surround yourself with. How would your aunt react to your post? People from school? Coworkers?

You’re most likely an open book.

            People might know more than you think. Don’t assume that they refresh all of your pages 24/7, but certain apps actually notify people when you do certain actions. Instagram alerts people when you post after a dry spell. It even has a feature that shows what your followers are liking and what accounts they started following. Do you want your dog obsession to remain a mystery? A person can look at who you follow and discover that you are a democrat that loves Taylor Swift (probably too much) and plays Fortnite. You think you’re a mystery because you didn’t put your school or hometown in your bio? It could take someone 10 seconds to navigate through your account and learn that information about you.

           

Snapchat accounts display a person’s “snapscore” which is the sum of how many pictures or videos you’ve sent or received. It’s helpful to know that someone with the score of 5 probably is not that reliable, but on the other hand a person with 800,000 probably needs to go outside once in a while.

So, you think you’re in too deep?

            Bad news about the internet—as I am sure any teenager has heard—things never get deleted. So yeah, that video of you intoxicated can resurface at any second, and that can be a little scary. Yet, at your fingertips you have the power to flood the internet with the other side of you. You can voice your opinions on how women should have control over their bodies or post pictures of you at the science Olympiad or a soup kitchen. You can highlight the accounts you follow by promoting their pages on your story. You can step away from the mainstream social media apps and create a blog. Maybe you can start a YouTube channel about something you’re passionate about. The internet can be a scary place, but it’s up to you to decide how someone sees you.